Project Summary Administrative Core A The Administrative (Admin) Core of the UM Developmental AIDS Research Center (UM D-ARC) will be the primary organizational catalyst for the center. It will be responsible for administratively assisting center leaders, investigators, and other users, so that investigator time can focus on scientific activities directed to growing to a full-fledged center and a national resource for HIV-related mental health (MH) disparities across the HIV prevention and care continua. The Admin Core and UM D-ARC will draw on faculty across UM leveraging both established and emerging leaders in Psychology, Public Health Sciences, Psychiatry, Medicine, Nursing/Health Sciences, and other biomedical sciences to advance MH HIV/AIDS research. Appropriate to the allowable funding and scope for a developmental Center, our initial focus will be mostly on the local area, which is a US epicenter for HIV/AIDS. This would allow us to establish the Center, set up an organizational and scientific focus utilizing the resources available as a developmental ARC, and grow to be competitive as a full ARC by the end of the developmental award period. This would achieve our proposed Center aims and provide the strong infrastructure to re-ignite MH HIV/AIDS research at UM. The Admin Core will organize the startup activities for the developmental Center and its Cores; support scientific growth by assisting the Developmental and two Research Cores with their aims; manage Center finances, reporting, and regulatory requirements; and monitor Core activities to ensure progress toward the Center?s short-term objectives and long-term goals. The Admin Core will assist with organizing meetings (e.g., Research in Progress reviews, Community Forums, and center-center meetings at UM). Although community engagement is imbedded in all Cores as articulated in their individual proposals, the Admin Core will be the organizational hub for these activities, taking the lead in establishing an innovative center-center Community Advisory Board (CAB) with the Miami CFAR. Through the Admin Core, Center leadership will ensure dynamic strategic planning, working closely with three advisory groups (Internal Advisory Board, External Scientific Advisory Board, and the CAB) and monitoring enactment of their recommendations throughout the award period to grow the developmental Center towards a full-fledged ARC. The Admin Core will establish a functional and efficient administrative component for the overall D-ARC, cutting across the four proposed cores and interfacing with supporting institutional entities at UM. By monitoring and iteratively shaping Center activities year to year, with input from the advisory boards and users, we will maximize synergy both within the Center and with existing resources at UM. The overarching goal of the Admin Core is therefore to provide sufficient administrative support to the center leaders, the CAB, the cores, and the users so that the center investigators can focus their efforts to ignite MH HIV/AIDS scientific areas of highest priority in our community in the Greater Miami area.